This morning, 42 refugees from the Horn of Africa and Yemen landed at Fiumicino on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa. They were able to enter Italy thanks to a Memorandum of Understanding with the Italian State, signed in 2019 by the Community of Sant’Egidio and the Italian Bishops’ Conference, which provides for the arrival of 600 vulnerable people through humanitarian corridors. Their departure was facilitated by the active collaboration of the Italian Embassy in Addis Ababa, the Civil Liberties and Immigration Department of the Interior Ministry and the General Directorate for Italians Abroad and Migration Policies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
All 42 people, mostly young singles, had been refugees in camps in Ethiopia for some time. Two families are among them: a Somali woman, a widow with seven children, and a Yemeni woman with two minors. At dawn they were welcomed at Fiumicino by volunteers and some family members, who had been living in our country for years, in some cases already Italian citizens. They will be hosted in Rome and in seven Italian regions (Emilia Romagna, Friuli, Lazio, Lombardy, Apulia, Sicily, Tuscany) by associations, parishes, private citizens and religious institutes. They will be accompanied along a path of social and work integration, guaranteeing services, Italian language courses, schooling for the minors, and adequate medical care.
This is possible thanks to a totally self-financed project with the 8×1000 grant of the Italian Episcopal Conference, funds raised by the Community of Sant’Egidio, the generosity of associations, parishes and citizens who have offered their homes and their free voluntary commitment.